26 MAY - 18 JUNE 2022
FRONT GALLERY 

MONIKA MORGENSTERN (SA)
I am the Wind

As a visual multimedia artist Monika Morgenstern explores various ways of expressing the numinous in her practice.  

Numinous is a term derived from the Latin numen, meaning ‘arousing spiritual emotion; mysterious or awe-inspiring.’ As an artist she investigates and observes these phenomena and has done extensive phenomenological research into the subject. 

During her research she noted that people use language of intense power and deep emotion; language that is evocative of a profound yearning. This inspired her to investigate sacred literature of diverse cultures and eras to elicit phrases which describe this longing most succinctly.

The piece “I am the Wind”  quotes words from the Bible and Amergin, a 16th Century Irish poet, and plays with the late 19th century idea of ‘ectoplasm’. Ectoplasm is said to be formed by a medium in a state of trance while communicating with spirits. The fog-like substance is excreted from the medium's body and spiritual entities are said to drape it around their nonphysical body, enabling them to interact in the here and now”.